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These Old Shades

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These Old Shades

By: Georgette Heyer
Narrated by: Alexander Vlahos
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

These Old Shades is read by Alexander Vlahos, star of Versailles.

Leonie Bonnard is being drawn into a twenty-year-old feud.

Justin Alastair, the Duke of Avon, is a reprehensible rake with an axe to grind. Decades ago the Comte de Saint-Vire did something unforgivable and ever since Justin has been lying in wait to settle the score.

When Justin meets Leon, a street urchin with a striking resemblance to his nemesis, he aims to use him as a pawn in his plans for revenge on the Comte. Except Leon is in fact Leonie, a beautiful young ingénue who may just steal Justin's heart.

Can Leonie win the Duke's affection, or will his need for revenge overcome them both?

©1926 Georgette Heyer (P)2021 Penguin Audio Historical Historical Fiction Romance Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

"One of my perennial comfort authors. Heyer's books are as incisively witty and quietly subversive as any of Jane Austen's." (Joanne Harris)

"Absolutely delicious tales of Regency heroes.... Utter, immersive escapism." (Sophie Kinsella)

"Léonie, hot-tempered and very much her own woman, is one of Heyer's best female leads[...]The novel remains a witty, vivid page turner." (Melanie Reid)

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The narrator, Alexander Vlahos brought this complex and challenging piece of narration to life. Highly recommended.

Excellent narration

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I love Georgette Heyer and Alexander Vlahos is brilliant narrating. His take on characters closely matches my own when reading this book.
I would take a chance on a new author if I knew he was narrating it.

Love the book, love the narrator!

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Heyer wrote this story when she was very young and is thus in a slightly different style to the stories she wrote a good 40 years later. That does not in any way mean it isn't as incredible as her other works! 'These Old Shades' is magnificent, the story is so captivating, mysterious, filled of intrigue and adventure. I adored this book and the narration so much! would highly recommend!

Wonderful story and fantastic narration!

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I started listening to this book narrated by someone else some time ago and could not continue past first chapter, it was irritating. This narration, however, is so good that I couldn’t stop listening. Great characters and entertaining dialogues. A great treat overall

Delightful narration, entertaining story

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This is one of my favourite Georgette Heyer novels. It is a rollicking read with plenty of action, marvelous characters, and sparkling wit. That does not change.
I resisted buying the previously available audio book version from audible because I could not tolerate the narrator. I found the voice of this narrator easier on the ear. However, overall he failed to live up to my expectations. In the opening scene we have the word “ beribboned” pronounced “ berib - boned”. There were similar errors else where. Much of the humour was missed because there were pauses at inappropriate places in sentences. The French pronunciation was dire. Even the name of Saint Vire changed after the first few mentions, but never matched the way I expected it to sound. I suppose I understand the use of regional accents to distinguish characters, so I can cope with Davenant having a Scottish accent, but why a French housekeeper has one too, or why the French valet has a Welsh accent, are mysteries. It would have helped had the narrator read ahead and marked up the text in some way because at times a speech started with one voice before morphing into the correct one. Justin is suave and usually drawls, but that did not come across.
I decided to keep this audio version in spite of its shortcomings because the story and characters are delightful. However, I do wish it could have been read by a narrator with a genuine feel for the cut and thrust of Heyer’s sparklingly witty dialogue.

This old favourite

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These Old Shades is one of the best of Georgette Heyer’s books, but the narrator didn’t suit it. He tried to distinguish between characters with a variety of different accents, but his accents affected my enjoyment of the book, being very hit and miss. One lady started out Scottish and ended French by the end of her sentence… and Leonie sounded like an east end schoolboy when Avon first encountered her. She should be narrated with a consistently French accent. Another narrator, please!

Love this book but not the performance

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They should have had a narrator with some knowledge of the French language and the understanding that English aristocrats would not have strong regional accents.

Good story let down by narrator

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I have read every Georgette Heyer historical novel over the last sixty years and am now enjoying them again as audiobooks. They show that a book does not have to have loads of sex to be engrossing. This has always been one of my favourites. This story of Leonie and her Monseigneur is full of humour and wit and had me chuckling out loud over Leonie’s dialogue.
The narration by Alexander Vlahos was generally good if at times a little erratic. The highlight was his interpretation of Leonie, which was spot on. The lowlight was Rupert who I found too loud and sharp, not at all how I imagined the scamp to be.

Leonie and her Monseigneur

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The story was well read and brought to life by Alexander Vlahos. Having read These old shades over fifty years ago it was my first Georgette Heyer and I became a fan of her books. Now I find listening to audio books a great way of relaxing and this one I didn't want to stop.

A good listen

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Great story. Narrator is not as good as the original narrator, and some strange pronunciation. But he is easy to listen to and characters were neatly identifiable. It is so good to have newer versions of the Heyer books available

These old shades

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